MARY STUART 

TTJ QUEEN 
SCOTS 




UNA 
BIRCH 






mam 




class HA in 

Rook f\sVi 
GopyrightK 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



MARY STUART 



(Mary, Queen of Scots) 



MARY STUART 

(MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS) 
AN ESSAT 



By 
UNA BIRCH 

Author of il Secret Societies and the French Revolution'' 
and " Anna von Schurman : Artist , Scholar, Saint" 




FUNK Gf WAGNALLS COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
19 1 I 



^> \ 



^ 



V 



Copyright, 1911, by 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

[Printed in the United States of America] 

Published, September, 1911 



THE AUTHOR'S OTHER BOOKS 
ANNA VON SCHURMAN, 

ARTIST, SCHOLAR, SAINT 
Longmans, Green & Co. 
SECRET SOCIETIES AND THE 

FRENCH REVOLUTION 
John Lane. 



& 






'CI. A 2 9380 9 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Enduring Appeal of 

Her Life 9 

II. The Fourteen Years Spent 

in France 17 

III. Her Return to Scotland . 29 

IV. Her Marriage with Lord 

Darnley 43 

V. The Murder of Riccio 50 

VI. The Murder of Darnley 58 

VII. Mary and Bothwell 82 

VIII. The Eighteen Years Spent 

in England 97 

ix. fotheringhay 109 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Mary, Queen of Scots, 

Signing Her Abdication Frontispiece 

(From the engraving by J Sartain, 
after the original by Sir Wallan.) 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 

Reproved by Knox Facing p. 30 

(From the engraving by T. Holloway, 
after the original by R. Smirkc.) 



i3£<2€€e€£€-:SEE£Sg:S^® 



THE ENDURING APPEAL OF HER LIFE 



n the magnificent, impartial sanc- 
tuary of Westminster Abbey men 
of differing religions have been 
laid side by side: enemies have been 
reconciled: murderer and victim have 
been entombed. Among these pacts of 
death none strikes the imagination with 
greater force than that of two women. 
Their cenotaphs are placed in parallel 
positions of honor in recesses on either 
side of Henry VII's Chapel, equidistant 
from the holy shrine of Edward, King 
and Confessor. The catafalques are 



Mary Stuart 

equal in magnificence, the alabaster ef- 
figies that lie below the marble canopies 
are both decked as queens; both pairs 
of feet rest on the same significant 
heraldic lion. The Abbey honors the 
unhappy, fugitive, ill-fated Queen, whose 
six years of power were expiated by 
eighteen years of durance and a violent 
death, no less than it honors the most 
splendid and successful Queen of mod- 
ern history, whose assured reign was the 
golden age of the country over which she 
ruled. Neither woman ever looked on 
the other's face, yet neither was long out 
of the other's thoughts. One died, it is 
true, as disconsolately as the other, de- 
serted by friends and lovers ; and has not 
time equalized their fates ? for round one 
head shines the martyr's aureole, while 



The Appeal of Her Life 

on the other rests the crown of material 
success. 

Some one once said that the only biog- 
raphy which English people read will- 
ingly is the "Life of Mary, Queen of 
Scots," and that if variations on her ca- 
reer were brought out every month or 
two they would find countless readers and 
buyers. Absurd as this assertion sounds, 
there is a measure of truth in it, for in- 
terest in her life never dies, never even 
fades. From the day of Darnley's mur- 
der a continuous series of poems, plays 
and operas have been composed about 
this Queen. Vondel, Alfieri, Schiller, 
Swinburne and a host of less-known 
writers have been roused to celebrate her 
tragic story. Thirteen pages of the Brit- 
ish Museum Catalog attest to the in- 



Mary Stuart 



terest she has evoked in the minds of 
men and women of all nations. But in 
spite of all these efforts, no one has ever 
portrayed the magic of Mary, no one 
will ever know why her biographers de- 
velop into partizans, why hardly any one 
in writing about her has been able to re- 
sist weighting the balances in one direc- 
tion or the other. 

If we were to sit down and ask our- 
selves what virtues Mary possest we 
should not find the list long, but, as M. 
Philippson points out in his "Histoire du 
Regne de Marie Stuart," "Elle n'a point 
ete la femme de mceurs legeres que ses 
adversaires se plaisent a nous depeindre 
depuis plus de trois siecles." She was 
courageous, generous, grateful to all who 
showed her kindness, and a lover of high 



The Appeal of Her Life 

and dangerous things. Her aptitudes 
were in a measure heroic, altho in 
practise she was cruel, faithless, untruth- 
ful, incapable of deep feeling or ideal- 
ized love and subject to gusts of physical 
passion. What is it that makes us for- 
give her so much ? Is it her youth ? Is it 
her dreadful expiation of those seven 
years in Scotland, years crowded with 
incident, streaked with tragedy, stained 
by crime, darkened by intrigue ? 

The last historian to attempt an ap- 
preciation of this checkered life is Lady 
Blennerhassett, a woman well qualified 
by the habit of patient investigation and 
the methodical practises engendered by 
a life of serious work, as well as by her 
acute perceptions and judgment, to hold 
the balance fair. Emphatically this biog- 

13 



Mary Stuart 



rapher is not a partizan, tho she has 
a theory. It seems a reasonable one. 
She suggests that Mary's acts should not 
be judged by any of our personal stand- 
ards of conduct, but should be referred 
to her idea of herself, to her belief that 
she was something more than a mere 
woman since she represented the majesty 
and sanctity of the kingly prerogative. 
It is probably true that Mary had no 
private standard of behavior and that 
she was fundamentally convinced that 
all personal inclinations and aversions 
should be sacrificed to political combina- 
tions, to the exigencies of government. 
That these combinations and exigencies 
occasionally necessitated the removal of 
certain persons from the scenes of daily 
life was to her no matter for idle regrets, 

14 



The Appeal of Her Life 

for her view was detached, as that of any- 
general who regards "casualties in ac- 
tion" as the means of accomplishing his 
end. With regard to herself also she 
stood completely aloof from sentimental- 
ism, and Lady Blennerhassett, in writing 
of her matrimonial negotiations, says, 
"On la voit toujours prete a immoler sa 
personne a n'importe quelle combinai- 
son politique." 

Mary's life falls into four periods — 
the first consisting of five years' child- 
hood in Scotland, the second of fourteen 
years in France, the third of seven years 
in Scotland, the fourth of eighteen years 
in England. The first of these periods 
is of scant importance, except from the 
point of view of foreign politics. From 
the moment of James V's death, six days 

15 



Mary Stuart 



after Mary's birth, the kings of Europe 
began to intrigue as to her eventual mari- 
tal alliance. When dying, Henry VIII, 
far-seeing statesman as he was, imprest 
on Somerset, the Protector of the king- 
dom, that a marriage between his son 
Edward and Mary Stuart must be put 
through and, if necessary, by force. In 
execution of this project Somerset 
crossed the Tweed in 1547, and fought 
the Scots at Pinkie. Defeated in battle, 
the Northerners immediately identified 
the idea of national independence with a 
French alliance, and offered their baby 
Queen to France in exchange for help. 
- offer was accepted, and the engage- 
1 it of Mary to the Dauphin Francis 
confounded English policy. 



16 



II 



THE FOURTEEN YEARS SPENT IN 
FRANCE 



\AJ ITH a sa< ^ neart Mary °f Lorraine 
~jL dispatched her child to France. 
gfes^oj Five other Maries and several 
half-brothers, including Lord James 
Stuart, embarked with her, and in the 
first days of August, 1548, at the very 
time when John Knox, chained to the 
oar of a French galley, was laboring on 
the North Sea, the little convoy tacked 
along the west coast of Ireland to keep 
clear of English ships. At RoscofI, near 
Brest, a chapel stands to commemorate 
that calm summer voyage and happy 



Mary Stuart 



landing. Thus were inaugurated the 
fourteen years of life in France, those 
years which both from the castles of 
Scotland and the prisons of England 
were looked back upon as Paradise. 

The King of France called Mary the 
most accomplished child he had ever 
seen, and Diane de Poitiers treated her 
kindly, making sure that she was prop- 
erly fed and properly clothed. Her 
education was well conducted, and at 
thirteen we find her declaiming a Latin 
oration before the court on the advan- 
tages of arts and letters to women, wri- 
ting themes on y£sop, Cato and Cicero, 
as well as letters on hunting the fallow 
deer, and remedies for the toothache. 
Serious studies were considered good for 
children, but the main vocation of the 

18 



Fourteen Years in France 

royal circle was the practise of what they 
called "joyusitie," the elaborate profes- 
sion of a leisured class in that day as in 
all days — a brilliant, exquisite cloak dis- 
guising immorality, want of purpose and 
want of heart. ''Joyusitie'* was just the 
quality that Mary was in the future to 
try to impress on dour Scotland, and the 
quality she was to miss most among her 
northern subjects. 

Mary Stuart's marriage to her royal 
fiance was accomplished ten years after 
her landing, and as a mark of national 
approval the Scots Parliament, inspired 
by Mary of Lorraine, voted the crown 
matrimonial to the French prince. Lord 
James Stuart, when nominated by the 
Regent to convey the sword, scepter and 
crown of Scotland to the husband of his 

19 



Mary Stuart 



Queen, made many pretexts of delay and 
ended by never executing the commis- 
sion. The death of Mary Tudor, which 
occurred in the same year as the wedding 
of Mary Stuart, was the signal for the 
King of France to give a foolish order, 
the unforeseen effects of which were 
destined to overcast the life of his gay 
little daughter-in-law. He ordered that 
the Royal arms of England should be 
quartered with those of France. Before 
signing the marriage contract with the 
Dauphin, Mary Stuart had secretly be- 
queathed (in the event of her dying with- 
out issue) Scotland and her claim on the 
English throne to France. Emboldened 
by possession of this secret treaty, Henry 
II, ignoring the claims of Elizabeth, 
ordered that Francis and Mary should be 



Fourteen Years in France 

proclaimed sovereigns of Scotland, Eng- 
land and Ireland. The effect of this 
proclamation was that the only hope of 
national independence in Scotland be- 
came at once centered in an alliance with 
England. 

Four years before her marriage Mary 
Stuart appointed her mother, Mary of 
Lorraine, as Regent of Scotland. In try- 
ing to govern Scotland with Frenchmen 
the Regent had got into great difficulties. 
Her councilors were located at Paris and 
Fontainebleau, and Scots people resented 
their country being regarded as an out- 
post of France, a colony held by military 
occupation. Great dissatisfaction and 
suspicion of the Government were felt, 
and the Lords of the Congregation, 
headed by Lord James Stuart, called in 



Mary Stuart 

English help to take the power out of 
the Regent's hands. Elizabeth, the Eng- 
lish Queen, was in a dilemma, since she 
was unwilling on principle to support in- 
surgents against an established Govern- 
ment, and yet fully aware of the inten- 
tion of France to strike at England 
through Scotland. In February, 1560, 
she decided to ally herself with the lead- 
ers of the Protestant party in defense of 
national liberties, and in March she sent 
Lord Grey across the border with an 
army to attack Mary of Lorraine's troops 
entrenched at Leith. During the siege of 
this town the Regent, who had been ill 
for some time, died, and, owing to mis- 
fortunes by sea which affected the sup- 
plies and reenforcements of the French 
army in Scotland, the French were 



Fourteen Years in France 

forced to make peace with the Lords in 
two months. Desiring the union of their 
country with England, the Lords invited 
Elizabeth to marry Arran and so reign 
over Great Britain. This offer was de- 
clined, but the double 'Tact of Edin- 
burgh" was drawn up, a pact which on 
the one hand obliged Mary to withdraw 
French troops from Scotland and to au- 
thorize a Council of Government there, 
and on the other hand obliged her to 
abandon all claim to the English throne. 
This Pact, tho agreed to by the Scots 
and French negotiators, was never rati- 
fied by their Queen. Little, however, in 
the future was the Calvinist confederacy 
to trouble itself with the shadow of 
Royal power left in Scotland. It had 
determined that the affairs of the realm 



Mary Stuart 



were to be administered by twelve gentle- 
men named by the Queen and five by the 
Estates, and in order to give a perma- 
nently Protestant character to Parlia- 
ment it was arranged that several hun- 
dreds of proprietors and freeholders, 
especially selected from Protestant Fife, 
should be introduced into the assembly 
of spiritual and temporal lords. These 
proprietors were many of them in actual 
possession of ecclesiastical property and 
were awaiting the legalization of their 
authority. Many members of Parliament 
therefore depended for their very exist- 
ence on the maintenance of Protestant- 
ism, and this explains much of the savage 
feeling manifested in this and succeeding 
years. 

Mary continued to display the arms of 



Fourteen Years in France 

England, but the display was short-lived, 
for her boy husband died in the very year 
in which the Pact was made, leaving be- 
hind him the most forlorn little widow of 
eighteen, writing poetry and regretting 
the past. 

Qui, en mon doux printemps 
Et fleur de ma jeunesse 
Toutes les peines sens 
D'une extreme tristesse 
Et en rien n'ay plaisir 
Qu'en regret et desir? 

Ce qui m'estoit plaisant 
Ores m'est peine dure: 
Le jour le plus luisant 
M'est nuit et obscure 
Et n'est rien si exquis 
Qui de nisi soit requis.* 



* Translation — "Who am I that, in the sweet 
spring time, in the flower of my youth, feel naught 
save the agony of extreme sadness and take no 
pleasure but in regret and longing?" 

25 



Mary Stuart 

During her "white mourning" Mary 
Stuart was approached on behalf of 
many suitors, and since she was. no 
longer to be feared as Queen of France, 
overtures were received from Scots sub- 
jects. Leslie came on behalf of the 
Catholic minority, and Lord James 
Stuart was dispatched by the Calvinist 
confederacy "to grope her mind." Em- 
phatically did the latter impress on Mary 
that it was impossible to reimpose Cathol- 
icism on Scotland, but that, since Eliza- 
beth had refused the hand of their 
nominee Arran, the Calvinists were anx- 
ious to have his sister as their Queen. 

Mary considered her situation. There 
was no place for her in France, and from 
Scotland it was as easy to conduct mat- 
rimonial negotiations as from any other 
26 



Fourteen Years in France 

part of Europe. Moreover, her kingdom 
called her to the responsibilities of queen- 
ship. Deciding to go to Scotland, she 
placed herself unreservedly in the hands 
of her brother and begged a safe-conduct 
of Elizabeth for her voyage. This the 
English Queen refused to grant until the 
Pact of Edinburgh was ratified. With 
spirit Mary told Elizabeth's ambassador : 

"Malgre l'opposition de mon frere je suis 
venue en France. Malgre l'opposition d'Eliza- 
beth, je retournerai en Ecosse. Elle a fait al- 
liance avec mes sujets revoltes ; mais il est 
aussi des sujets rebelles en Angleterre qui 
volontiers entendront mon appel. Je suis 
vaine comme elle et je ne manque d'amis. Et 
mon arae est peut-etre aussi grande que la 
sienne."* 

* Translation — "That which used once to be de- 
lightful is nothing now but bitter pain; the brightest 
day to me is night and darkness, which is the most 
sweet to me of all thing3 but that I ask for it in 
vain." 

27 



Mary Stuart 



A crowd of friends and relations es- 
corted Mary to the sea-coast and there 
many unhappy farewells were said, but 
"joyusitie" prevailed, and she embarked 
without waiting for the safe-conduct of 
Elizabeth, which came on the very day 
she sailed. Three uncles went with her, 
d'Aumale, d'Elboeuf, and the Grand 
Prior, as well as chronicler Brantome, 
poet Chastelard, and secretary Castelnau. 
As they left the shore a boat sank in 
front of their eyes. "My God, what an 
augury is this for a journey!" said Mary 
in horror. 



Ill 

HER RETURN TO SCOTLAND 



here was something terrible about 
quitting a country then, some- 
thing momentous which we in 
these days of safe and easy travel can 
never know. Mary, as she stood leaning 
over the poop of the vessel, watching the 
clouding coast, murmured, among her 
slow-falling tears, farewells to that dear 
country, France. She stood there sob- 
bing for five hours, and when they per- 
suaded her to leave the stern, said with 
a little laugh that she had done the op- 
posite of Dido, who had gazed at the sea 



29 



Mary Stuart 

when yEneas left. It was summer time 
and she caused her bed to be made up 
on the bridge, with an order that she 
was to be wakened if the coast of France 
was still visible in the early dawn. They 
made but short way in the night, and 
she was able to look once more on the 
dim coast and exclaim, "Adieu, France, 
je pense ne vous revoir jamais plus." 

The North Sea was overhung with 
dense fog and Brantome thought they 
must be wrecked. "What does it mat- 
ter," said the Queen, "if we do sink? 
Could we wish for anything else than 
death?" Being very miserable herself, 
she took thought for the most wretched 
people on board, the oarsmen, whom 
people were accustomed to regard as part 
of the machinery of the vessel. She 
30 



Return to Scotland 



ordered that they should be treated 
kindly and not beaten. 

The landing at Leith in the early 
morning of August 19, 1561, was a dis- 
illusion. Knox says: "The very face of 
heaven, the time of her arrival, did man- 
ifestly speak what comfort was brought 
into this country with her, to wit, sor- 
row, dolour, darkness, and all impiety." 
A few days later she was to hear from 
the lips of this man, her serious enemy, 
the strange and revolutionary doctrine 
that the obedience of subjects extends 
no further than the law of God allows. 
No one seemed to be glad she had come 
to Scotland, no one had taken thought 
for her; but tho she felt as tho trans- 
ported from Paradise to hell, she knew 
the only remedy to use was patience. 



Mary Stuart 



Her horses having been captured by the 
English, a miserable escort of badly ca- 
parisoned steeds was commissioned. She 
rode on a poor hack to Holyrood, where 
a crowd received her, singing psalms to 
violins and rebecks out of tune. Bran- 
tome complained of the noise outside the 
palace windows that evening; but the 
discord made Mary smile and recover 
courage and "joyusitie'' enough to re- 
quest a repetition of the "melody" for 
the following day. And so she came into 
her kingdom — to a land where she was 
to find no loyal servant and no stedfast 
friend. 

Mary had reserved to herself the right 
of practising her own religion and had 
guaranteed not to interfere with the re- 
ligious settlement arrived at by the Lords 




From the engraving by T. Holloway, after the original by R. Smirkc. 

ltary, Queen of Scots, Reproved by Knox 



Return to Scotland 



of the Congregation prior to her arrival 
and confirmed by the Parliament of 1560. 
Calvinism was the officially recognized 
religion: all Catholic offices were for- 
bidden. Soon after she arrived she rat- 
ified existing arrangements for the 
safeguarding of Calvinism and the per- 
secution of Catholicism. Mary's con- 
ception of her duties as a queen never 
interfered with her execution of her 
private religious obligations. They were 
two separate fields of activity, having no 
connection with each other. While her- 
self venerating the Blessed Sacrament 
and accepting fervently the Catholic ar- 
ticles of belief, she was able, without 
prejudice, to allow the impeachment in 
her presence of the Catholic Bishop of 
Dunkeld for making preparations to ad- 

33 



Mary Staart 

minister Communion at Easter (1562), 
and to authorize the incarceration of 
forty-eight priests for saying Mass se- 
cretly. This equivocal lack of fervor 
earned for her the hatred of the Vatican, 
just as surely as her private profession 
of religion earned for her the hatred of 
her Calvinist subjects. It was only after 
solidifying her position by marriage with 
a Roman Catholic that she could venture 
to negotiate with the Catholic Church 
and allow her private religious inclina- 
tions to become public policy. 

Her journey to Inverness to pacify the 
insurgent Catholics, and the execution 
of Huntley's son, were all part of an 
elaborate scheme to win the confidence 
of her Calvinist subjects, for Mary had 
no notion in these early days of imperil- 
34 



Return to Scotland 



ing her throne by any untimely demon- 
stration in favor of Catholicism. 

Holyrood was beautified and enriched 
by this northern journey of "pacification," 
for the sumptuous furnishings of Strath- 
bogie were transported to Edinburgh, 
and made life there a little more tolerable 
for pleasure-loving Mary. Three half- 
brothers enlivened the old castle by their 
wedding feasts in January, 1562. Dan- 
cing, masquerades, tennis, cards (even on 
Sundays, to the horror of Knox), hunt- 
ing with the falcon, riding and shooting 
with the arquebus, filled up the hours 
when the Council did not claim the 
Queen's presence. Life for the moment 
was as full of "joyusitie" as it ever could 
be in the drear atmosphere of Scotland. 

The more we study Mary's person- 

35 



Mary Stuart 



ality, the more strongly we are convinced 
that she had no recognizable moral code ; 
that questions of right and wrong, con- 
sistency, honor, and conviction were 
nothing to her; that political expediency 
governed her conduct; that responsibil- 
ity sat lightly upon her, and that she only 
felt bound to act up to tlie old autocratic 
idea of queenship imparted to her during 
her education in France. She wanted 
power, and power was the one thing 
denied to her during those seven years 
in Scotland. She was never more than 
a figurehead, a puppet in the hands of 
that Calvinist confederacy. Power was 
no more permanently and essentially cen- 
tered in her than it was in Darnley or 
in Bothwell ; puppets all were they, to be 
supported or not by Scots politicians as 
policy might dictate. 
36 



Return to Scotland 



Henceforward the ever-changing back- 
ground of councilors group and regroup 
themselves as if in some dark devil-dance 
about this girl of twenty and her two 
husbands. Among the principals — 
Moray, Maitland, Morton, Bothwell— 
one, and one only, was true to her. The 
seconds — Balfour, Huntly, Argyll, and 
the rest — are hardly worth troubling 
about. But moral disgust should not 
blind us to the issue at stake in their 
intrigues, which was the maintenance of 
Protestantism. To some of the politi- 
cians who worked so industriously against 
their Queen, Mary represented a disas- 
trous policy, the policy of separation 
from England which jeopardized Cal- 
vinism and secured the continual enmity 
of a powerful neighbor by the continual 

37 



Mary Stuart 

assumption of heirship to the English 
throne. 

Lord James Stuart (who since the ex- 
pedition to Inverness had been created 
Earl of Moray) and Maitland of 
Lethington did their best to win Mary 
to these views in the beginning, and 
Elizabeth, with considerable civility, sent 
to congratulate her "sister" on mounting 
the throne of Scotland. A romantic 
paper friendship followed. Mary had 
not ratified the Pact of Edinburgh and 
Elizabeth refused to acknowledge in the 
Queen of Scots the next heir to the 
throne of England; nevertheless, the 
English Queen protested that she would 
liefer forget her own heart than that of 
Mary, "this heart I cherish." Mary 
kissed her "sister's" picture, kept her 

33 



Return to Scotland 



letters in her bodice, would wear no 
jewel but the diamond of her giving, and 
assured the English ambassador that in 
order to end their quarrel she would wish 
to be a man or else to be able to have the 
English sovereign for a husband. Many 
plans were made for the Queens to meet, 
but they all miscarried, and Elizabeth 
decided at midsummer, 1562, that no 
meeting should take place. All through 
the following winter the Queen of Scots 
worked at the business of government 
and read Latin prose with Buchanan, but 
when the new year came her thoughts 
were diverted to lighter things. 

Chastelard, who had been back to 
France bearing a silver vessel to Ronsard 
from Mary inscribed "A Ronsard 
l'Apolo francais," returned to Holyrood 

39 



Mary Stuart 

with verses from Ronsard to Mary. He 
also addrest to her poems of his own 
making : 

O Deesse, 

Ces buissons et ces arbres 

Qui sont entour de moi, 

Ces rochers et ces marbres 

Sgavent bien mon emoi. 

Bref rien de la nature 

N'ignore ma blessure 

Fors seulement 

Toi qui prends nourriture 

En mon cruel tourment; 

Mais s'il t'est agreable 

De me voir miserable 

En tourment tel 

Mon malheur deplorable 

Soyt sur moi immortel. 

Mary enjoyed this form of adulation 
and laid aside her Livy for models of 
French verse. The poor Huguenot poet 
lost his head as well as his heart, and, 
40 



Return to Scotland 



having been twice found concealed in 
Mary's bed-chamber, was condemned to 
die for his temerity. Just before his ex- 
ecution he read Ronsard's hymn to 
Death : 

Le desir n'est rien qu'un martyre. 
Content ne vit le desireux, 
Et l'homme mort est bien heureux, 

Heureux qui plus rien ne desire. 

This execution was but the prelude to, 
the foreshadowing, as it were, of the 
terribly intimate tragedies yet to come, 
and it set people discussing more vio- 
lently than ever the question of the 
Queen of Scots marriage. Was it to be 
the "cretin" Don Carlos or the repre- 
sentative of some other royal house? 
Elizabeth, it was well known, did not 
favor a Spanish or an Austrian alliance, 

41 



Mary Stuart 



because it would displace the balance of 
power in Europe. An English nobleman 
devoted to English interests such as Lord 
Robert Dudley would have been her 
choice. Mary, who thought a good deal 
about her own future, laughed and cried 
hysterically when possible marriages 
were discust, asserting that she would 
marry where she pleased, and again that 
a widow's lot was most enviable. 



meBBBBBBB.^'SEEEEEEBm 



IV 
HER MARRIAGE WITH LORD DARNLEY 



t Wemyss Castle, in February, 
1565, Mary met her young kins- 
man, Darnley, new come from 
England, where he had been in almost 
daily attendance on Elizabeth. She 
promptly engaged herself to marry him. 
Randolph talks of her as a woman be- 
witched and so altered by passion that 
her wits were affected. Elizabeth de- 
clared the engagement "directly prej- 
udicial to the sincere amity existing 
between the Queens and consequently 
perilous to the peace of both realms," 

43 



Mary Stuart 

and dispatched Throckmorton to Scot- 
land to break it off. The English envoy 
found a sympathizer in Moray, who 
viewed the projected alliance with no 
favor. For the three and a half years 
that his sister had been in Scotland, he 
had ruled her, and on the whole things 
had gone quietly and well. We know 
that from the time of the conclusion of 
the engagement things went anything 
but quietly and well. The General As- 
sembly of the Church was frantic at the 
idea of a Catholic consort, and indeed 
no one viewed it with favor except Mary 
and the Lennoxes. Randolph wrote 
much of the bridegroom's arrogance: 
"Darnley's behavior is such that he is 
now condemned of all men, even by 
those who were his chief friends. What 



Marriage with Lord Dam ley 

shall become of him I know not; but it 
is greatly to be feared that he can have 
no long life among this people." Looked 
at politically, the alliance was a good 
move, however, for it outwitted Eliza- 
beth, as it meant the union of the only 
two possible heirs to the English throne, 
and union is strength. 

The projected marriage caused the 
politicians to regroup themselves. Doug- 
las, Morton and Ruthven declared them- 
selves for Darnley; Moray, Chatel- 
herault and Argyll (secretly assured of 
the backing of the English court) set 
themselves against him. Mary was 
faced with rebellion, and a fortnight 
before her wedding issued an admonition 
to her faithful lords and gentlemen to 
join her in arms with fifteen days' pro- 

45 



Mary Stuart 



visions. On the eighth day seven thou- 
sand men had obeyed her summons, and 
others were pouring in. On July 28, 
1565, "en vetements de deuil mais le 
coeur en joie," Mary was married. After 
the wedding she thought and dreamed 
only of battle. In August she was at the 
head of her troops wearing a light cui- 
rass and with a short sword at her sad- 
dle. The people were with her, and 
vainly did Moray try to rouse an anti- 
Catholic rebellion by calling on the men 
of Edinburgh to rise and support him in 
defense of the Evangel. Some of his men 
deserted, and in the end Mary triumphed 
without bloodshed. Elizabeth never 
backed a failure, and Moray's venture 
was a failure, so when he arrived at her 
court to report progress she exprest en- 
46 



Marriage with Lord Darnley 

tire ignorance of his erstwhile plans. 
The possibility of a Catholic combina- 
tion against her was beginning to agitate 
Elizabeth's mind, and she deemed it well 
not to precipitate its formation by un- 
friendly action toward her sister Queen. 
Philip II highly approved the Darnley 
marriage and was in process of forming 
a Catholic league in Europe, in which, 
as secret agents informed Elizabeth, 
Scotland was to be enrolled. This league 
was in some degree the political result of 
the deliberations of the Council of Trent. 
Catholicism, under that redoubtable In- 
quisitor Pius V, was in the ascendant, 
and so strong seemed the protection and 
support it might afford, that Mary and 
Darnley, both Catholics by birth, adopted 
a Catholic policy. They were urged by 

47 



Mary Stuart 



the Vatican to do away with all leaders 
of heretics, and Pius V, in his eagerness, 
was reported to say that he would send 
his last chalice to help Mary in such an 
enterprise. In the web of spoken and 
written negotiations involved by the 
adoption of the new policy the acute 
brain of the Queen's private secretary 
proved invaluable. His name was Ric- 
cio, and he had been promoted from 
chamber varlet to the place of Raulet, 
the French corresponding secretary, dis- 
missed for indiscretion. Maitland of 
Lethington, the official foreign secretary, 
was in practise superseded, his well- 
known English sympathies making him 
untrustworthy in subtler Catholic nego- 
tiations. Darnley, too, was useless in 
this matter; he was a careless boy, will- 
48 



Marriage with Lord Darnley 

ing to undertake the state but not the 
responsibility of kingship. After a while 
Mary "removed and secluded" her hus- 
band from the Council. To prevent his 
knowing what letters were written, she 
had his name printed on an iron stamp, 
and "used the same in all things." Darn- 
ley was deeply offended at being con- 
sidered inefficient in counsel by his wife, 
and proceeded to revenge himself for this 
slight with all the bitterness of a small 
mind. Maitland abetted the youth, and, 
writing to Cecil in February, 1566, used 
the cryptic words, "The ax must be laid 
to the root" ; words which are supposed 
to denote approval of the Darnley con- 
spiracy, 



49 



Q€BHSHSBK-SEEEEEB5&S 



v 

THE MURDER OF RICCIO 



R"1iccio was the son of a musician 
_- and sang bass in the Queen's 
HHD chapel quartet. Tho evidence, 
common sense and nature are against the 
theory that he was Mary's lover, Darnley 
was not ashamed some months before the 
birth of his son to let it be said that 
Riccio was his wife's paramour. This 
poor-spirited boy, who had been pro- 
claimed and styled king by his wife on 
the eve of their marriage, had never been 
granted in fact "the crown matrimonial." 
This crown connoted equal rights and 



The Murder of Riccio 



undisputed succession, and it was a 
source of great mortification to Darnley 
that it was still denied to him. 

Meanwhile the exiled Moray and his 
men were anxiously looking out for a 
way of return to Scotland. Mary was in 
no conciliatory mood, and said she would 
only admit their return if they persuaded 
Elizabeth to acknowledge her as heir to 
the throne of England. Seeing that 
Darnley was vain, ambitious and weak, 
these refugees approached him with an 
offer to procure him the crown mat- 
rimonial if he would protect them in 
their return and swear to maintain Prot- 
estantism in Scotland. He accepted their 
conditions, and presently, either in col- 
lusion with these exiles or in execution 
of the spirit of their enterprise, he en- 



Mary Stuart 



gaged himself together with Ruthven 
and Morton, to kill the controller of the 
Catholic policy — Riccio — as "an enemy 
of the state." Bothwell, Huntly and 
Athol were not included in the conspir- 
acy. Moray, who had previously tried 
to buy Riccio with a big diamond and a 
humble letter, did not appear till the day 
after the execution of the plot. 

Every one who has read many of the 
"Lives" of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
realizes what undue importance is given 
in them to the facts of the Riccio and 
Darnley murders and to the mystery of 
the Casket Letters as against the actual 
bearing upon affairs of the conspiracies 
they symbolized. In considering ac- 
counts of the crimes and the incrimina- 
tory letters, we should not lose sight of 

52 



The Murder of Riccio 



the political combinations of which they 
were but indications. 

In discussing this particular tragedy 
we must bear in mind that Riccio might 
quite well have been killed anywhere and 
at any time. The two motives for mur- 
dering him in the presence of the Queen 
were equally vile: the first, that the 
death might be regarded and justified as 
a "crime passionel"; the second, that it 
might endanger the Queen's life. 

The story of the evening has been told 
so often that it seems superfluous to tell 
it again. On Saturday, February 9th, 
as soon as dusk set in, Morton, with one 
hundred and sixty armed retainers, took 
possession of Holyrood. There was a 
supper party in the ante-room to the 
Queen's chamber, consisting of the 

53 



Mary Stuart 



Queen, her Italian secretary, her equerry, 
her half-sister, Lady Argyll and her 
half-brother, Lord Robert Stuart, an 
intimate little party of five. Supper 
was at seven. Darnley, who had been 
riding races that day upon the sands at 
Leith, had supped earlier, but came in 
while the Queen was still at table. He 
sat beside her and put his arm about her 
waist. Suddenly the white face of Ruth- 
ven appeared in the doorway, ghastly 
from mortal illness; he sternly ordered 
Riccio to leave the table. The crouch- 
ing secretary tried to efface himself in 
the curtains of the window. Mary 
turned to her young husband at her side 
and asked him if this thing was of his 
doing. He answered "No." The Queen 

54 



The Murder of Riccio 



arose and went to the embrasure. Ric- 
cio, seeing Lindsay, Morton and others 
appear then, clung to her skirts and 
begged her to save his life. A few vio- 
lent movements and the tables, chairs and 
lights were upset; all would have been 
darkness save for Lady Argyll's pres- 
ence of mind in holding aloft one of the 
candles. The secretary meanwhile was 
dragged into the adjoining room and put 
to death. Most suggestively, the dagger 
of Darnley was left sticking in the corpse. 
The whole episode is only significant in 
so far as it bears on the religious and 
political situation in Scotland. The 
object of the conspiracy was, as we have 
seen, the maintenance of Protestantism, 
the means were the endangering of the 



Mary Stuart 



Queen's life or reputation; and either 
way it meant the destruction of her au- 
thority in the country. Darnley was but 
the tool of the lords just as Bothwell in 
a far lesser degree, in so far as he was 
a stronger man, was their tool in the 
Kirk-o'-Field conspiracy. 

Altho Riccio's death was a great shock 
to Mary, and the dagger of Darnley told 
its own story, the Queen kept her head, 
and from no word she uttered even in 
this extremity could it be gathered that 
she had any love for Riccio. Bent on 
requitals, she informed Darnley that if 
she died in giving birth to her child, 
friends would avenge her, naming Philip 
II, the Pope, the King of France and 
various Italian princes as possible cham- 
pions. It is worth noting that at the 
56 



The Murder of Riccio 



same time that Riccio was being killed, 
the monk John Black, an ardent propa- 
gator of Catholicism in Scotland, was 
murdered in his bed by accomplices of 
Ruthven and Morton. 



57 



VI 

THE MURDER OF DARNLEY 



/^ IN the day after the murder Darn- 
^fj ley dissolved Parliament in his 
nSmll own name. Before the Privy 
Council, a few weeks later, he declared 
himself innocent of all conspiracy, and, 
with the inconsequence which made it 
impossible for Mary to admit him to 
her counsels, betrayed his accomplices. 

Mary was too friendless and too ill to 
quarrel with Darnley just then. Nearly 
every one seemed against her. Morton 
and Maitland were in the plot; Moray, 
her brother, was not ostensibly a plotter, 
58 



The Murder of Darnley 

but had he not arrived the day after the 
murder and requested that pardon should 
be extended to all concerned in the as- 
sassination? Mary's political instinct at 
this juncture came to her rescue, and 
with considerable acumen she took stock 
of the new situation. Bothwell, Huntly 
and Athol were certainly friends, but she 
saw that in order to maintain any posi- 
tion herself Darnley must be detached 
from the Protestant party ; he must be 
made to feel jealousy of Moray's posses- 
sions and of his possible power in the 
country. Suppressing any natural dis- 
gust or contempt she may now have felt 
for her husband, she maintained a kind- 
ly, almost tender, attitude toward him, 
learned all there was to know about the 
Protestant conspiracy, and then per- 

59 



Marv Stuart 



suaded him to fly with her to Dunbar. 
This flight took place three months be- 
fore the birth of her baby. As they left 
Holyrood secretly at night they are said 
to have passed through the crypt where 
Riccio's body lay, and Mary is credited 
with a Cassandra-like utterance — to have 
augured that unless things went badly for 
her, a fatter man than Riccio would lie 
beside him before the year was out. Mary 
was able to return in six days to Edin- 
burgh on a wave of popular feeling. 
Her position in the country was for the 
time being safe, for she had succeeded 
in making Darnley jealous and distrust- 
ful of his fellow conspirators, and had 
decided once more to adopt a Protestant 
policy and support the Calvinist con- 
federacy with her authority. 
60 



The Murder of Darnley 

As the time of her confinement ap- 
proached she was certain she was about 
to die, and in the light of the end many 
things are forgiven. Darnley's treachery 
was for the time forgotten, and in her 
will she left him many sentimental tokens. 
The baby boy was born at Edinburgh 
Castle on the 19th of June, 1566. Mary 
recovered well and quickly, and with 
health came new life and an irresistible 
desire to avoid her husband. Where was 
she to find a true supporter or a faithful 
friend? Nothing more forlorn than her 
condition of mind can be imagined. The 
moment was ripe for a lover, a rescuer, 
a hero, and he appeared in the person 
of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. 
Her own etat d'ame was the hot-bed for 
further tragedy. After recovery she went 

61 



Mary Stuart 

to Alloa Castle, a boat excursion ar- 
ranged suddenly and secretly in order 
to avoid the escort of Darnley. Both- 
well in his capacity of Lord High Ad- 
miral provided a ship for her transport, 
but it was Moray himself and not Both- 
well who traveled with her. 

Darnley went to Alloa for a few days, 
but soon left for Stirling in an ill-tem- 
per at finding himself easily dispensed 
with by his wife. At the end of Sep- 
tember, Mary went to Edinburgh to work 
at finance and the Budget. The sum- 
mer at Alloa and the early autumn at 
Edinburgh had brought new political 
schemes into the minds of all parties. 
To Darnley it brought the idea of in- 
triguing against the Queen through the 
Catholic powers; to the Lords (who had 
62 



The Murder of Darnley 

discovered that Darnley was too untrust- 
worthy even to be used as a tool) it 
brought the decision to support Mary and 
destroy Darnley. To Mary it brought 
the conviction that Bothwell was the only 
man strong and single-hearted enough to 
maintain her ascendency. During the first 
week of October the new policy of the 
Lords crystallized; they declared they 
would obey no order of the King, but 
only of the Queen. Moray and Morton 
signed a document to this effect. 

On the 9th of October Mary went 
to Jedburgh to hold an assize. While 
there news came to her that Bothwell 
lay dangerously wounded at his castle, 
the Hermitage. On the 15th of Octo- 
ber, when the Session of Justice was 
over, an incident occurred which has 

63 



Mary Stuart 

given rise to much speculation and 
which very probably had some connec- 
tion with the declaration of the Lords. 
Mary rode the twenty odd miles across 
country, accompanied by Moray, to see 
Bothwell. Her interview lasted two 
hours. Hosack is pleased to call this 
ride "a simple act of courtesy," whereas 
Buchanan saw in it an act of passionate 
desire. Probably the truth lies in 
neither diminution nor exaggeration. 
Vast quantities of papers, as we know, 
went to Bothwell the next day from the 
Queen's councilors and administrators, 
and it seems credible that in those days 
of untrustworthy messengers and be- 
trayals something urgent may have made 
a personal interview important. A ride 
with a brother, an interview lasting two 
6 4 



The Murder of Darnley 

hours, would hardly be a means of satis- 
fying a passion such as Buchanan di- 
vined. The ride, extremely exhausting 
as it was, was accomplished in thirty-six 
hours. Mary was ill after it, so ill that 
she thought herself about to die and 
commended her son and her Catholic 
subjects to Moray's care. On the 25th 
of October, when her life was despaired 
of, Bothwell arrived in a horse-litter at 
Jedburgh to receive her last instructions. 
But Mary did not die, and soon was 
back at work again, lodging for the sake 
of the country air at Craigmillar, a castle 
three miles to the south of Edinburgh. 
Her detestation of and irritability with 
Darnley grew. It had come to her knowl- 
edge that he was intriguing against her, 
and that he had sent letters to France, 

65 



Mary Stuart 



Spain, and the Vatican complaining of 
her tepidity and indifference toward 
Catholicism. To the French ambassador, 
Mary continually said, "I could wish to 
be dead," and that if she could not rid 
herself of Darnley she would commit 
suicide. Darnley had a particular dread 
of Morton (whom he had betrayed over 
the Riccio murder), and obstinately re- 
fused to have him back to Court, as had 
been allowed in the case of some of the 
other conspirators. The Lords made 
his refusal to pardon Morton the ex- 
cuse for an open quarrel with him, and 
Darnley left the castle. In consequence 
of this a conference took place, known 
afterward as the "Pact of Craigmillar." 
It seems to have arisen informally from 
conversations held between Maitland, 
Moray, and Argyll. 

66 



The Murder of Darnley 

These three men were anxious to re- 
instate Morton and his companions in 
exile, and Maitland thought the best way 
to accomplish this would be by getting 
Darnley and Mary divorced. Argyll said 
he did not see how this could be done. 
Maitland said, "We shall find the means 
to make her rid of him." These three 
men then took Huntly and Bothwell into 
their confidence. Then all went to the 
Queen. Maitland, as spokesman, said 
that if she would consent to pardon Mor- 
ton, means might be found to obtain a 
divorce between her and her husband. 
Mary entertained the idea so long as 
it did not affect the succession of her 
son. Then it was discust what rank 
Darnley was to hold, and the Queen 
asked whether it would not be better 

6 7 



Mary Stuart 



for her to retire for a while to France: 
this suggestion was strenuously opposed 
by Maitland. 

"Do not imagine, Madam, that we, the prin- 
cipal nobility of the realm, shall not find the 
means of ridding your Majesty of him with- 
out prejudice to your son; and albeit my Lord 
of Moray here present be little less scrupulous 
for a Protestant than your grace is for a 
Papist, be assured that he will look through 
his fingers and behold our doings saying 
nothing to the same." 

The Queen in reply said: 

"I will that ye do nothing through which 
any spot may be laid on my honor or con- 
science; and therefore I pray you, rather let 
the matter be in the state that it is, abiding 
till God of His goodness put remedy thereto." 

She was against divorce, because as a 
Catholic she could only obtain an annul- 
ment on the ground of consanguinity, and 
this would affect the legitimacy of her 

68 



The Murder of Darnley 



son. The upshot of the deliberations 
was that the conspirators agreed to re- 
establish Morton, Ruthven and those who 
had fled after Riccio's death, and to arrest 
and impeach Darnley for high treason. 
In December, 1566, a bond was drawn 
up by the corrupt and treacherous Bal- 
four. Balfour, Maitland, Huntly and 
Argyll signed, binding themselves to re- 
move Darnley by some expedient or 
other, but Moray did not sign. Morton, 
Ruthven and Lindsay from Newcastle 
had sworn as price of pardon to become 
party to the bond of Craigmillar. Mor- 
ton on his return refused, however, to 
take action until he had the Queen's ap- 
proval of the conspiracy in writing. 
Meanwhile outwardly things were going 
on as usual, and preparations went for- 

69 



Mary Stuart 



ward for the baptism of James VI at 
Stirling. Darnley was not present at the 
festivities, altho he was in the town. 
The bondsmen once more sued their 
Queen for Morton's pardon, backed this 
time by the Earl of Bedford and his 
royal mistress. What could Mary do 
but yield, and how could Darnley be 
anything but terrified at the reinstate- 
ment of his worst enemy? He received 
a warning through Lennox, his father, 
of "a bond" concerning him and his fu- 
ture. On Christmas eve, Mary signed 
the amnesty for twenty-seven persons 
concerned in the assassination of Riccio. 
Stricken with fear Darnley rode away to 
his home near Glasgow without taking 
leave of the Queen. Falling very ill by 
the way, he suspected poison, tho really 
70 



The Murder of Darnley 

he had caught smallpox. From his 
father's house he wrote to explain his 
conduct, saying that Mary allowed him 
no authority, and that the lords isolated 
him. 

From this time on the plot thickened; 
issues became more complicated. Two 
things had been arrived at by the bond- 
men: (i) the pardon of Morton and 
his companions; (2) the determination 
to get rid of Darnley. It now became 
evident that a third and unsuspected de- 
cision had been taken contingent on the 
execution of the second, and that was the 
marriage of the Queen to Bothwell. 

Some historians lay but little stress on 
a document to which Mary appended her 
seal on the 23rd of December, the day 
before Darnley's flight. This document 

71 



Mary Stuart 

reestablished the Catholic Bishop of St. 
Andrews as primate and legate of Scot- 
land and included the power of matri- 
monial jurisdiction. Is it not very strange 
that this jurisdiction was restored only 
to one Catholic bishop in whose diocese 
were situated Edinburgh and the de- 
mesnes of Bothwell ? The Privy Council 
can hardly have been ignorant of this 
patent, which apparently proves that du- 
ring the baptismal ceremonies at Stirling 
Alary was facing a double perspective; 
firstly, of separation from her husband, 
and, secondly, of the separation of Both- 
well and his wife. The Bishop of St. 
Andrews was later on one of the signa- 
tories to the Ainslie bond, and he it was 
who annulled the marriage of Lady Both- 
well. From this sinister Christmas plot 



The Murder of Darnley 

it appeared as tho Bothwell had been se- 
lected (on account of his Protestantism 
and of Mary's undoubted passion for 
him) to be the future instrument of gov- 
ernment for the Calvinist confederacy. 
The situation, however, is curious and is 
susceptible of several interpretations. 

In January, 1567, Bothwell and Mait- 
land went to meet the exile Morton un- 
der the Whittinghame yew, and from this 
time onward we are uncomfortably per- 
suaded that Morton and Maitland were 
using Bothwell as a means to an end, 
namely, the success of the Protestant 
party guided by themselves. 

M. Philippson thinks that the Queen 
went to Glasgow two days after the yew- 
tree conference in order to fetch Darnley 
away from the plottings of the Lennox 

73 



Mary Stuart 

family and to reconcile herself at least 
outwardly with him, fearing his open 
enmity too much to leave him at Glas- 
gow. He does not credit her with any 
evil intention, but it is difficult to see 
any reason for conveying a man ill with 
smallpox from his own home to a dis- 
used monastery, and the balance of prob- 
ability lies in the direction of the journey 
to Glasgow being in execution of some 
arrangement of which we are not cogni- 
zant. Mary was received outside that 
town with every demonstration of loyal- 
ty. In the interview she had with Darn- 
ley before supper that night she told him 
he must be conveyed in the horse-litter 
she had brought with her to Craigmillar.* 

* According to the depositions of Crawford and 
Nelson he refused to go to Craigmillar and asked to 
go to Kirk-o'-Field. 

74 



The Murder of Darnley 



He made affectionate vows, spoke of new 
intentions and forgiveness for past follies, 
and the Queen, his wife, gave him her 
hand in token of reconciliation. On the 
second evening, too, they had a long talk, 
tho the air of the room was so "infecte" 
that Mary could not endure it more than 
two hours. She questioned him as to 
what rumors had reached him of plots 
hatched at Craigmillar; she asked him 
what Lords he hated; he answered that 
he hated none. Weak with illness and in- 
capable of resisting his transportation to 
Craigmillar, he said, throwing himself on 
her mercy, that he knew "his own flesh 
could do him no hurt." This was the 
moment at which the two important Cas- 
ket Letters are supposed to have been 
written — these are the conversations they 

75 



Mary Stuart 



purport to report. It is Mary's part of 
kidnaper that they reveal. 

The casket itself was a silver-gilt box, 
a present made to Mary by her first hus- 
band. In June, 1567, it was in the keep- 
ing of Balfour, friend of Bothwell and 
commandant of Edinburgh. After Car- 
berry Hill it became public property. 
Morton and others who scrutinized the 
contents declared that it contained eight 
letters in French without date, signature, 
or address, some poems and two mar- 
riage contracts. Only one of the docu- 
ments is of real importance — Letter II 
from Glasgow, for it directly implicates 
the Queen in the murder of Darnley. 
It is, however, so like Crawford's report 
of the proceedings at Glasgow as to be 
possibly based upon it. Mr. Andrew 
76 



The Murder of Darnley 

Lang* does not believe in integral falsi- 
fication, but admits the possibility that 
Lethington and Balfour may have made 
valuable interpolations. Mr. Hendersonf 
opines that Lethington had no time to ac- 
complish so difficult a forgery and that 
Balfour had no key to the casket. He finds 
no evidence against, no suspicion of Leth- 
ington in contemporary documents. Lord 
Acton and the German critics believe in 
the integral authenticity of the letters, 
but whether we believe in their authen- 
ticity or not, Mary is condemned by her 
actions. It was owing to her persuasion 
that the sick lad was moved to Edin- 
burgh, and whether she was the con- 



* "The Mystery of Mary Stuart." 
t "The Casket Letters," and "Mary, Queen of 
Scots." 

77 



Mary Stuart 

senting and conscious cooperator with 
the conspirators, as we are obliged after 
the divorce arrangements to consider 
probable, or not, she, a woman who had 
repeatedly exprest her delight in assas- 
sination and her gratitude to those who 
executed or attempted it, drew Darnley 
to his doom.* 

Mary and her husband left Glasgow on 
the 27th of January and arrived at Edin- 
burgh on the 1st of February. Darnley 
was conveyed to the western wing of a 
disused convent of Dominican friars, 
which stood near the roofless church of 
Our Lady-in-the-Field close to the walls 
of Edinburgh. Darnley's bedroom on 
the first floor was hung with tapestry; a 

* "Lectures on Modern History," Vol. 1, Lord 
Acton, pages 151-2. 

78 



The Murder of Darnley 

great bed of brown velvet, ornamented 
with gold and silver lace, was there for 
him to lie on, and the floor was covered 
with a Turkey carpet. A turnpike stair led 
down to the Queen's room, where a bed 
of red and yellow damask, with a cover- 
let of marten's fur, had been installed. 
Considering how hastily the house had 
been put in order, it was very com- 
fortable. The Queen slept in her red 
and yellow bed on Wednesday the 5th 
and on Friday the 7th February. On this 
Friday, Lord Robert Stuart, one of 
Mary's half-brothers, who had a pity and 
a liking for Darnley, warned him there 
was a plot against his life. Darnley told 
his wife, who immediately taxed Lord 
Robert as to his story, thus reassuring 
her husband. 

79 



Mary Stuart 



On the Saturday, Moray, who never 
obviously inculpated himself, went to his 
wife at Fife. On the Sunday, Mary 
supped at Sir James Balfour's house with 
Huntly, Bothwell, Cassilis and the Bishop 
of the Isles, and after supper went along 
the dark wynds accompanied by torch- 
bearers to visit Darnley. At about ten 
o'clock she reached her husband's room 
and sat beside his bed. Huntly, Argyll, 
Bothwell and Cassilis played dice, while 
the Queen talked to the sick youth lying 
in his taffeta mask on that dark velvet 
bed. About midnight the Queen rose 
and, placing a ring upon Darnley's fin- 
ger, kissed him good-night: at the door 
she turned and said, "It is eleven months 
to-day since Riccio was slain." To Darn- 
ley, ill and lonely, the words sounded 
80 



The Murder of Darnley 

ominous, and he said to his servant Nel- 
son: "She was very kind; but why did 
she speak of Davie's slaughter?" Open- 
ing his book of psalms he read aloud 
Psalm 55 : "My heart is disquieted with- 
in me, and the fear of death is fallen 
upon me." Mary meanwhile went back 
to Holyrood to dance at a mask. 

Men and women said afterwards that 
Darnley's cries for mercy had come to 
them upon the still night air. His body 
was found in the field hard by, together 
with that of a page, Taylor. It seemed 
that they had tried to escape from the 
explosion, but that they had been 
strangled by a person or persons un- 
known. 



81 



VII 
MARY AND BOTHWELL 



W"1hen the upholsterers came next 
mma morning to hang the widow's 
^ft^l rooms with black, it was Both- 
well who stood in the candle-light 
conversing with the Queen, who lay 
abed. Later in the same morning 
she presided over the Privy Council. 
During the official inquiry into the crime 
neither sentinels nor gatekeeper were 
called to give evidence as to who had 
come and gone to Kirk-o'-Field that 
night. Two days later an offer of re- 
ward was made; £2,000 and a free par- 
82 



Mary and Bothwell 



don were promised to any informer. No 
one dared inform. Day after day on the 
door of the Tolbooth bills were posted 
accusing Bothwell, Balfour, Chalmers, 
and Speers of the murder. It was dis- 
covered later that Murray of Tullibar- 
dine, one of Bothwell's warmest parti- 
zans, was the author of this placard and 
other bills. No one can doubt that Both- 
well murdered Darnley. The nine or ten 
immediate accomplices may have drawn 
lots, and the lot may have fallen upon 
Bothwell. It may be that since he was 
to reap the reward of apparent kingship 
through their help, he agreed to do the 
disagreeable work of assassination; also, 
if any other lord had done the deed Both- 
well later on could have brought him to 
justice. However the act had been ar- 

83 



Mary Stuart 



rived at, it was settled that Bothwell 
was to take the throne as the guarantor 
of the Protestant ascendency. M. Philipp- 
son viewing Darnley's assassination as a 
blow at Catholicism, says it was the com- 
plementary murder to that of Riccio. The 
program had been made easy of execu- 
tion by the Queen's passion for Bothwell. 

Two days after Darnley's body had 
been deposited in the vaults of Holyrood, 
Mary went to Seton, and there she quite 
threw off any such simulated grief as 
might have been agreeable to the Privy 
Council. She played games, went out 
riding and shooting, and made much of 
her future consort. 

The Queen addrest a letter of condo- 
lence to the bereaved Lennox, and, in re- 
ply to his demand that the assassins 
84 



Mary and Bothzvell 



should be brought immediately to justice, 
said that she had already summoned Par- 
liament "to punish the terrible murder of 
her husband the King." The tribunal 
presided over by Argyll, an accomplice, 
was faced by Bothwell with perfect equa- 
nimity. He rode to his trial on dead 
Darnley's horse, escorted by 4,000 
mounted men and 200 of the Queen's 
arquebusiers. Since Lennox feared to 
appear, no formal accusation was lodged 
against him and he was unanimously ac- 
quitted. Immediately Parliament by a 
series of acts restored his possessions 
to Huntly, and made grants of land to 
Moray, Morton, Maitland's father and 
other of Bothwell's associates. The Gen- 
eral Assembly of the Church was not so 
docile. It was convened for the 18th of 

85 



Mary Stuart 

April and unanimously demanded that 
the assassins should be brought to jus- 
tice. 

The curtain now rang up on the last 
scene of the Craigmillar conspiracy to 
enthrone Bothwell. The day Parliament 
adjourned Bothwell bade his friends to 
supper. After supper a document was 
produced in which it was laid down that 
Bothwell had not participated in the mur- 
der of Darnley, and that he had been jus- 
tified by the acquittal of the tribunal. 
The signatories to this document engaged 
themselves before God to defend Both- 
well and to hasten his marriage with 
Mary should she choose him as husband. 
Huntly, Argyll, Morton, Cassilis, Seton, 
fourteen lay lords in all, and eight bish- 
ops signed this paper known to history 

86 



Mary and Bothwell 



as the Ainslie Bond or the Bond of the 
Nobility. Murray had prudently slipped 
off to France. 

Things were moving quickly, for on 
the 24th of April, 1567, Mary, who was 
riding with Maitland, Huntly, and an 
armed escort from Linlithgow to Edin- 
burgh, where she had been visiting the 
baby son she was never to see again, was 
intercepted by Bothwell and his men and 
taken to Dunbar, of which she had just 
given him command. 

Public decorum forbade that a Queen 
should ostensibly accept an offer of mar- 
riage from a man who had made her a 
widow ten weeks before, wherefore this 
ambush was devised. On the 27th of 
April the divorce processes already ar- 
ranged for were begun; on the 29th the 

87 



Mary Stuart 



Privy Council, presided over by the 
Queen, sat at Dunbar. The Commissary 
Court of the Kirk granted the Protestant 
divorce to Bothwell on the 3rd of May, 
while on the 7th of May the Bishop of 
St. Andrews exercised his privilege of 
matrimonial jurisdiction for the first and 
last time by granting that Catholic an- 
nulment to Lady Bothwell for which she 
had been induced to apply by her brother, 
Huntly, and his fellow bondmen. 

Bothwell was "publicly forgiven" by 
Mary and created Duke of Orkney. The 
marriage took place on the 15th of May, 
Huntly alone of the bondmen being in 
attendance. It lasted barely a month, 
and during that month Mary was con- 
sumed with jealousy, for she found that 
Bothwell despised all women save one, 



Mary and Bothwell 



and that one was the wife he had just 
divorced. 

The calculations of every one con- 
cerned in this coup d'etat were entirely 
falsified by a factor with which they had 
not reckoned. Successful crime requires 
the seal of public approval, and no one 
seems to have anticipated the intensity of 
the popular disapproval aroused by 
Mary's wedding with her husband's as- 
sassin. The horror exprest by foreign 
ambassadors and by the people of Scot- 
land caused Bothwell's bondmen to re- 
consider their position. As a result of 
this reconsideration they decided on an 
open change of front; to withdraw their 
nominal support from Bothwell and to 
adopt some alternative policy which 
would involve his overthrow; this they 

89 



Mary Stuart 



leagued themselves by bond to do. Mary, 
who felt the ground slipping away from 
under her, made a last bid for popularity 
by revoking permission for the practise 
of the Catholic religion and by herself 
abstaining from all acts of worship. To 
test for herself what authority was still 
hers, she summoned "her liege lords" to 
Melrose on the 15th of June, at the 
same time issuing orders for a levy of 
troops to be made on the pretext of an 
expedition against "the robbers of the 
Marches." No liege lord came to Mel- 
rose, and Bothwell and the Queen were 
assured of that which they already half 
realized, that no dependence could be 
placed on the signatories to the Ainslie 
Bond. 

To the Calvinist Confederacy, who 
90 



Mary and Bothwell 



now, as six years earlier, desired the al- 
liance of England, it mattered not that 
the Queen was in danger, nor that they 
had been false to their erstwhile asso- 
ciate. To them the situation represented 
a great opportunity, and accordingly they 
took advantage of it. 

Mary and Bothwell had gone to Borth- 
wick on the 7th of June, and thither 
Morton, in ready response to popular 
feeling, came with a thousand men and 
more to demand the murderer's blood. 
Mary spoke with this envoy while her 
husband escaped. Morton's message was 
that he and his friends would serve their 
Queen if she would abandon the King's 
murderer. In answer she said that he 
and his friends had pronounced the Duke 
guiltless, and that she, their Queen, had 

91 



Mary Stuart 



received him as husband. When Morton 
had left to convey her reply to his 
friends, the Queen set out to rejoin Both- 
well, and together they took refuge in the 
impregnable fortress of Dunbar. 

Misled by a message from his one- 
time friend Balfour, Governor of Edin- 
burgh, to the effect that he would co- 
operate with the royal troops if they 
marched toward the capital, Bothwell 
and the Queen set out for Seton, meet- 
ing the hostile lords at Carberry hill on 
the old battle-field of Pinkie. There 
was no fighting because Mary, afraid 
for Bothwell's safety, promised to parley 
with the Lords if only he might be al- 
lowed to ride away. They said fare- 
well with 'long kisses," never to meet 
again, and the Queen went with the 
92 



Mary and Bothwell 



Lords to Edinburgh. As she rode, dusty 
and disheveled, through the streets of the 
capital that night, she was preceded by 
a banner on which dead Darnley was 
depicted, and by his corpse was a kneel- 
ing child, out of whose mouth the words, 
"Judge m y cause, and avenge me, O, 
Lord!" issued. She had refused food 
through all the long June day, and that 
night cried for rescue to passers-by. Her 
dearest wish was to be placed upon a 
ship with Bothwell and allowed to drift 
at the wind's will. 

The lords were in a dilemma, since 
the Queen refused to abandon Bothwell. 
They could in no case reinstate her, for 
she knew too much. Had not Bothwell 
told her all his secrets, and had he not 
given her a paper stating that Morton, 

93 



Mary Stuart 



Maitland and Balfour had murdered 
Darnley? They decided at length that 
she should be incarcerated in Loch Leven 
Castle, under the custodianship of Mo- 
ray's mother. On the 17th of June she 
was imprisoned; on the 25th a General 
Assembly denounced her as murderess; 
on the 1 6th of July she was forced to 
abdicate, and to appoint Moray as re- 
gent; on the 29th her boy was crowned. 
Nearly a year was spent by Mary most 
wretchedly in the solitude of Loch Leven 
Castle. In May, 1568, she managed to 
escape. 

Bothwell was abroad, and Mary de- 
cided to try to reassume her former po- 
sition of Queen, in which decision Argyll, 
Huntly and other lords, as well as nine 
bishops and many gentlemen, supported 
94 



Mary and Bothwell 



her. After revoking her abdication she 
sent to negotiate with the Regent, who 
waited till he had got men together, and 
then declared himself determined to sup- 
port the cause of the Infant King. Mary 
was extremely anxious to avoid fighting, 
as her position was improving every 
day. She intended to go to Dumbarton 
and summon Parliament to meet her 
there. The Hamiltons, who formed her 
escort, appeared to fall in with her pa- 
cific views and to be willing to convey 
her circuitously to Dumbarton so as to 
avoid any chance collision with the Re- 
gent Moray's troops. They played her 
false, however, by making straight for 
Dumbarton by Glasgow, which they 
knew to be occupied by the Regent, as- 
suring the Queen that they would do 

95 



Mary Stuart 



their best to avoid any encounter. The 
Regent's troops were in a position on 
Camp Hill, close to the village of Lang- 
side, and the Hamiltons, in trying to 
take this hill by assault, were complete- 
ly routed with the loss of three hundred 
men. Mary watched the battle, the doom 
of all her hopes, from the hill of Cath- 
cart. Seeing the day lost, she was seized 
with fear, remembering the night after 
Carberry Hill, and galloped away, aban- 
doning forever her cause. Obedient to 
the impulse of terror she got out of Scot- 
land as quickly as she could, crossing 
the Solway Firth to Workington in Cum- 
berland. 



9 6 



VIII 

THE EIGHTEEN YEARS SPENT IN 
ENGLAND 



ROM the moment that her feet 

n touched English soil Mary loses 
i all historical significance. She 
no longer influences events, she becomes 
the more or less passive object round 
which plots and intrigues crystallize. 

On the 15th of May she wrote to 
Elizabeth — the first of many letters — 
explaining her plight: "I hope you will 
send immediately to see me. All my 
clothes and necessaries were left [be- 
hind." High sheriff Lowther conducted 
her to Carlisle Castle, and the great 



Mary Stuart 



English lords flocked to see her. Her 
dignity suffered for want of suitable 
clothing, and a request made to Eliza- 
beth for help of this kind was answered 
by a present of cast-off raiment and a 
few yards of velvet. Lowther received 
orders on the 20th of May to pay all 
honor to the Queen, but to allow no one 
to escape. Mary's wish was to see Eliza- 
beth and persuade her personally of the 
justice of her cause; but Elizabeth found 
her "sister" a great problem, and was 
for the moment unwilling to compromise 
herself by precipitate action. 

It was impossible, of course, to de- 
tain Mary in England without some 
plausible ground for doing so, and quite 
as dangerous in its own way as allow- 
ing her to remain at large. Elizabeth, 
98 



Eighteen Years in England 

however, took a middle course and re- 
fused to see her "sister" until she could 
clear herself of suspicion. Mary wrote 
impetuously to the English Queen "that 
she would sooner apply to the Grand 
Turk than renounce vengeance against 
her rebel subjects." Step by step Mary 
was inveigled into submitting to an in- 
direct adjudication of her cause. Eliza- 
beth pacified her by promising to recon- 
cile Mary and her people once her inno- 
cence was established, and at the same 
time ordered Moray to justify his crimi- 
nal rebellion. Instead of doing so, he 
asked whether Elizabeth would accept 
the validity of the Casket Letters if the 
original French ones were submitted to 
her and found to tally with the Scotch 
translations. He received no direct 

99 



Mary Stuart 



answer, but covert encouragement, and 
presently a conference was summoned at 
York for October to judge Mary. Be- 
fore Moray decided to bring accusa- 
tions forward at this Commission of 
Inquiry, he tried to insure his future by 
getting answers to three questions: (i) 
Was a judgment at York authorized? 
(2) In the event of condemnation, would 
Mary be delivered up to them or kept 
in England? (3) Would he be confirmed 
as Regent? 

Elizabeth gave a secret affirmative re- 
ply to Moray's questions and disallowed 
all Mary's requests to be allowed to face 
her accusers in open court. The Com- 
mission was transferred from York to 
London and at once became an inquiry 
into the murder of Darnley and into the 



Eighteen Years in England 

reported intention of Mary to kill her 
son. 

In December Moray produced his ac- 
cusation — the "Book of Articles," a 
series of calumnious insinuations re- 
peated later in Buchanan's "Detectio." 
He inquired whether the English Com- 
missioners were satisfied, and when his 
inquiry was received in assenting si- 
lence he and his partizans withdrew. 
After a short interval Moray, who even 
to Lethington seemed to be behaving 
ignominiously, returned alone with the 
Casket. The letters within it were ex- 
amined. They did their work and en- 
abled Elizabeth to treat Mary as a crimi- 
nal. 

Mary was sent to Tutbury, and became 
interested in the project of a new mar- 



Mary Stuart 



riage. Elizabeth, fearing danger, caused 
the possible partner to be imprisoned 
in the Tower, thereby dealing Mary and 
her champions a severe blow. This in- 
carceration of the Duke of Norfolk re- 
moved the keystone from the Catholic 
arch, and made the efforts of Mary's 
rescuers rather pointless. In 1570 Pius V 
excommunicated Elizabeth, declaring she 
had no right to the throne, and for- 
bidding her subjects to obey her on pain 
of excommunication. By March, 1571, 
Mary was in correspondence with the 
King of Spain, the Duke of Alva and 
the Pope, to whom she had applied for 
an annulment, by reason of constraint, 
of her marriage with Bothwell. Ridolfi, 
her secret agent, talked a good deal, and 
Burleigh knew every detail of the con- 



Eighteen Years in England 

spiracy — knew that if Spain would land 
an army it was guaranteed that Norfolk 
would put 23,000 men into the field to 
cooperate with it; knew of the sixty 
lords who would back such a scheme; 
knew that Mary was receiving money 
from the papal nuncio. Lord Shrews- 
bury was told to inform her that all 
her plots were known, and that as a con- 
sequence her detention was to be aggra- 
vated and her correspondence curtailed. 
She implored grace for Norfolk, but he 
was executed, cursing Mary and declar- 
ing himself a member of the Church of 
England. 

By this time Buchanan had published 
the "Detectio," and all the world became 
familiar with his infamous rendering 
of his pupil's life. Mary read it in her 

103 



Mary Stuart 



prison and no doubt made many bitter 
reflections on the falseness of men. 

In June, 1572, odious plans were en- 
gaging the minds of Burleigh and Eliza- 
beth, who could not make up their minds 
to put Mary to death. As the result 
of their deliberations, Burleigh's son- 
in-law was sent on a mission to Mor- 
ton, Mar and Knox, to inquire whether, 
in the event of Elizabeth surrendering 
her custodianship of Mary to them, the 
Lords would engage to kill her four 
hours after arrival, "to receive that which 
she had deserved there by order of jus- 
tice." Knox did not object to this pro- 
posal, Morton wanted another trial and 
a guarantee of military assistance. Mar 
wanted money and a defensive alliance 
with England. The negotiations, how- 
104 



Eighteen Years in England 

ever, came to nothing in the end, as 
Elizabeth, tho desirous of assassination, 
feared revelation. 

In 1572, Mary's life practically ended. 
She was thirty years old, and for the 
rest of her days remained a closely 
guarded prisoner. From this time on 
her attitude changed, and she regarded 
herself as a martyr to her religion, as 
the representative of an abused and per- 
secuted faith. 

Catholic friends still rallied to her 
support. In June, 1579, Gregory XIII 
sent five ships and 2,000 papal soldiers 
to Ireland, which was to be the new 
"point d'appui" for an attack on Eng- 
land. In the following year a Jesuit cam- 
paign was opened in England, and in 
1582 Elizabeth managed to persuade the 

105 



Mary Stuart 



Scots Lords that Mary and Lennox had 
organized a Catholic conspiracy, into 
which their King had entered, promising 
to become a Catholic. On the strength 
of this suspicion, James VI was tem- 
porarily imprisoned; but the accusation 
was quickly disproved and James VI al- 
lied himself with Elizabeth in 1585. In 
the treaty at this time made there was 
no mention of his mother, Mary. For 
all he cared she might have been dead. 
Mary continued her small and pathetic 
civilities to her jailer, sending Eliza- 
beth presents of conserved fruits from 
France and of needlework, but she re- 
ceived nothing in return. Laughingly, 
she remarked one day, "Que les gens 
qui vieillissent prennent des deux mains 

mais ne rendent que d'un doigt." 
106 



Eighteen Years in England 

The next few years were interwoven 
with intrigues. In the unsympathetic 
English country Mary, the center of the 
web of complication, sat writing poetry. 
Burleigh, tired and angered by the situa- 
tion, determined to hoist her with her 
own petard. He sent her to Chartley, 
and encouraged her to go on with her 
scheming — the more letters and plots and 
intrigues the better, for only so could she 
be finally enmeshed. Walsingham was 
his willing agent in this matter, and 
Mary but clay in their hands. All let- 
ters issued from Chartley — and some of 
them were concealed in beer barrels — 
were seized and the so-called Babingtort 
conspiracy was brought to light. Bab- 
ington and eleven others had bound 
themselves by oath to foment insurrec- 

107 



Mary Stuart 



tion in England and to kill Elizabeth. 
On the 17th of July a letter from Mary 
to Babington was found, and it became 
the ground of her condemnation. On 
the 8th of August, while riding toward 
Tixall, Mary was arrested; on the 17th 
of September Babington and others were 
executed; on the 25th Mary was con- 
veyed to Fotheringhay. Elizabeth wrote 
to Paulet, custodian of Fotheringhay, 
"That she lifted up her hands to Him 
who alone can save or destroy, beseech- 
ing Him to deliver from the claws of 
the demon the better part of this woman 
who has fallen to assassination/' Of 
Mary she twice demanded avowal of 
crime and recourse to her clemency, and 
twice she was repulsed. 



108 



mg&g&g^g&'&m&mmB 



IX 
FOTHERINGHAY 



a fortnight after Mary's arrival at 
*i Fotheringhay 42 commissioners 
prcrasj and 2,000 men, followed after an 
interval by eight judges, appeared before 
the castle. At first Mary would not con- 
sent to submit her cause to such an as- 
sembly, firstly, because a Queen can not 
be judged by subjects, and, secondly, 
because she could not recognize the laws 
of England, which had afforded her no 
protection. In a day or two she was 
persuaded to appear before the judges. 
Counsel w T as refused; no witnesses were 

109 



Mary Stuart 



called; the commissioners constituted 
both judge and jury. She was informed 
that papers and documents would be of 
no use, as she was to be accused of 
nothing before the 19th of June of that 
very year. In short, she was to be tried 
for complicity in the Babington plot. 
The accusation was read and supported 
by the Chartley letters. At first Mary 
said she knew nothing of Babington ; 
the letters produced were avowedly 
copies; how could she tell if they were 
genuine or accurate? Where were her 
own secretaries? Why had they killed 
the principal witness, Babington? She 
admitted intercourse with Babington af- 
ter a while, but not conspiracy against 
Elizabeth's life. The judges listened to 
passionate accusations and plaints, but 



Fotheringhay 



there was no sign of weakness, no deba- 
sing of queenhood, visible to any witness. 
Crippled yet queenly, she faced her ac- 
cusers, adjuring the Commissioners who 
denied her counsel to look to their con- 
sciences and to remember that the theater 
of the world is wider than the realm of 
England. She answered Burleigh in his 
role of Crown Prosecutor with spirit and 
clearness. She had no notes, no secre- 
tary and no documents, and said that no 
man there could defend himself in such 
circumstances. During the days of trial 
she was serene in temper, reading the 
Lives of Saints and discussing English 
History. Her conscience was at rest: 
she saw herself a martyr. 

Presently the Commissioners disap- 
peared with their evidence, and judgment 



Mary Stuart 

was pronounced in the starred chamber 
of Westminster, Lord Zouche alone 
among those there declaring himself not 
satisfied that she had "compassed or 
imagined the death of the Queen of Eng- 
land." Mary was condemned to death. 
Parliament confirmed the sentence. Af- 
ter a short interval, both Houses peti- 
tioned that the sentence should be exe- 
cuted. Elizabeth begged them to recon- 
sider the matter and to devise some bet- 
ter remedy. After fresh deliberation 
they repeated their request, and forth- 
with Lord Buckhurst was dispatched to 
Fotheringhay to acquaint the Queen of 
Scots of the judgment. Elizabeth shrank 
from signing the death warrant, altho 
she had caused the sentence to be pro- 
claimed to the sound of a trumpet 



Fotheringhay 

throughout the kingdom. The sword 
hung suspended over Mary's head for 
several weeks, but at last, on the 1st of 
February, at Greenwich, the Queen of 
England signed the warrant of execution, 
as it were inadvertently, among other 
state papers. She thought herself very 
badly served in that no one had privily 
killed Mary. 

Desolation gives courage, and Mary, 
"destitute of all aid and advice but that 
of God, felt cheerfulness and strength." 
When Lord Buckhurst had broken to her 
that she was condemned to die for con- 
sent to and authorship of rebellion, she 
said : 

"I expected nothing else. ... I do not 
fear death and shall suffer it with a good heart. 
I have never been the author of any conspiracy 
to injure the Queen. . . . For my part, I 

113 



Mary Stuart 

am weary of being in this world; nor do I, or 
any one else, profit by my being here." 

Eleven weeks later, when the Earls of 
Kent and Shrewsbury came to tell her 
that she was to die the following morn- 
ing, she received the message quietly 
and said, "It is the road to heaven." 

Mary's worst enemy must admit that 
she died admirably. In a farewell letter 
to Mendoza she said with the same irony 
and detachment with which she was able 
to take farewell of her suite : "They are 
working in my hall; I think they are 
making a scaffold to make me play the 
last scene of the tragedy." 

Mary wrote letters on the evening be- 
fore her death, signing her name for the 
last time to a letter to the King of France 
at 2 a.m., six hours before the time ap- 



Fotheringhay 



pointed for the ceremony of execution. 
Then she lay still upon her bed. Her at- 
tendants observed that her lips moved 
and that she smiled peacefully. Jane 
Kennedy called it "laughing with the 
angels." 

Mary's dignity in the supreme moment 
was magnificent; exalted beyond fear or 
hope in the assurance that she, herself 
but a poor sinner, was admitted to that 
deathless roll of men and women who 
have been privileged to shed their blood 
for the Catholic faith. 

She commended her spirit to God 
kneeling, and a moment later a piece of 
rough woolen stuff, snatched from the 
billiard-table, covering the quivering re- 
mains of this unhappy Queen. 

The personal note silences all conten- 



ds 



Mary Stuart 

tion, and tho as students of history we 
ought to be considering the public con- 
sequences of her execution in the quiet- 
ing of conspiracy and rebellion, yet as 
human beings we only find ourselves 
wondering whether death ever justifies 
life. 

The green mounds of Fotheringhay 
look as remote from tragic happenings 
as the sheep that browse upon their 
slopes. All the Stuarts were ill-starred 
from the cradle, and we may say with 
Voltaire that if anything could justify 
fatalism it would be the tragic history of 
their house. 



116 



THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES 

A Series of Entertaining Novelettes 

Illustrated and Issued in Dainty Dress. 

Small nmo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents 

per volume. 

THE COURTSHIP of 

SWEET ANNE PAGE 

By Ellen V. Talbot 
A brisk, dainty little love story incidental to "The Merry 
Wives of Windsor," full of fun and frolic and telling of the 
courtship of Sweet Anne Page by the three lovers : Abraham 
Slender, the tallow-faced gawk, chosen by her father ; Dr. 
Caius, the garlic-scented favorite of her mother ; and the 
"gallant Fenton," the choice of her own wilful self. 

THE SANDALS 

By Rev. Z . Gr enel 1 
A beautiful little idyl of sacred story about the sandals of 
Christ. It tells of their wanderings and who were their 
wearers, from the time that they fell to the lot of a Roman 
soldier when Christ's garments were parted among his crucifiers 
to the day when they came back to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. 
The book exhibits both strength and beauty of literary style. 



III. 

THE TRANSFIGURATION 

of MISS PHILURA 

By Florence Morse Kingsley 

Author of "Titus ," "Prisoners of the Sea," etc. 

An entertaining story woven around the " New Thought," 
which is rinding expression in Christian Science, Divine Heal- 
ing, etc., in the course of which Miss Philura makes drafts 
upon the All-Encircling Good for a husband and various other 
things, and the All-Encircling Good does not disappoint her. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 
New York and London 



THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES 

A Series of Entertaining Novelettes 

Illustrated aud Issued in Dainty Dress. 

Small i2mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents 

per volume. 

IV. 

THE HERR DOCTOR 

By Robert MacDonald 

A crisp, dainty story of the schemes and pretty wiles by which 
a traveling American heiress wins and is won by a German 
nobleman. — Minneapolis Times. 



ESARHADDON 
KING OF ASSYRIA 

By Leo Tolstoy 
Three short stories, allegorical in style, illustrating with 
homely simplicity, yet with classic charm, Tolstoy's theories of 
non-resistance and the essential unity of all forms of life. 



VI. 

PARSIFAL 

By H. R. Haweis 
An intimate and appreciative description and consideration of 
Wagner's great opera. Illustrated with portrait of composer 
and scenes from the opera. 



VII. 

THE TROUBLE WOMAN 

By Clara Morris 
A pathetic, even tragic tale, but one which carries the most 
optimistic of messages. The unobstrusive moral of the story is 
that the way to find consolation for one's own trouble is to 
consider those of others and to lend a helping hand. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 
New York and London 



THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES 

A Series of Entertaining Novelettes 

Illustrated and Issued in Dainty Dress. 

Small i2mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents 

per volume. 

VIII. 

THE CZAR'S GIFT 

By William Ordway Partridge 

A pretty and pathetic little story of self-sacrifice and devotion, 

the scene of which is laid in Russia. The story has been 

widely commended for its beauty of diction, and the graceful 

strain of delicate feeling and sentiment which runs through it. 



IX. 

BALM IN GILEAD 

By Florence Morse Kingsley 
A companion volume to, and written in the same delightful 
style as the author's earlier volume in this series, " The 
Transfiguration of Miss Philura." It abounds in the whole- 
someness of cheer, common sense, and good humor. 



X. 

MISERERE 

By Mabel Wagnalls 

A brief, but beautiful romance in which the discovery of a 
rich and powerful voice leads ultimately to a climax as thrilling 
as the death scene in "Romeo and Juliet." The story is 
told with simple grace and directness, and is singularly pathetic 
and forceful. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 
New York and London 



THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES 

A Series of Entertaining Novelettes 

Illustrated and Issued in Dainty Dress. 

Small i2mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents 

per volume. 

XI. 

THE OLD DARNMAN 

By Rev. Charles L. Goodell 

What genuine New Englander has not heard of " The Old 
Darnman " — a weird old man, spectral, wan, with bent form, 
and long white hair. His was a very human, pathetic story 
of a lost bride — as strange a story in its way as " The Wander- 
ing Jew" or "The Flying Dutchman" or "The Head- 
less Horseman." 



XII. 

THE EMANCIPATION OF 
MISS SUSANA 

By Margaret Hannis 

This little tale unfolds the moving story of the means by 
which a spinster, thought to be hopless in her spinsterhood, 
accomplished a matrimonial ambition. 

A jolly little story gracefully and entertainingly written without a 
stupid line in it. — Detroit News. 



XIII. 

THE RETURN OF CAROLINE 

By Florence Morse Kingsley 

Companion volume to "The Transfiguration of Miss 
Philura." A new story in Mrs. Kingley's charming style, in 
which she again brings home to her readers, an elementary and 
wholesome truth in human life. 

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers 
New York and London 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



W 27 !§f| 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 390 589 2 





